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Newsmakers : Economy Minister Jumps off Deep End

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Just weeks after taking over as Argentina’s new economy minister, Felisa Miceli is already tackling one of the country’s biggest bogeys—inflation. The former head of the state-owned Banco de la Nación says she’ll take a tough stance to avoid the country’s runaway inflation of the past.

Consumer prices rose 12% in the year through November, giving Argentina its first taste of double-digit inflation since the peso’s devaluation in 2002. However, Miceli is forgoing traditional fiscal and monetary policies and is resorting to price freezes and other measures some analysts claim are part of what they feel is the Nestor Kirchner administration’s growing economic interventionism.

Miceli has reached an agreement with several supermarket chains to temporarily lower prices on key food items by 15% and launched talks with municipal and provincial authorities to monitor price hikes in their regions—forming what the president has named the “League of Price Monitoring.” She also unveiled Banco de la Nación’s plan to offer $1.5 billion in new loans to boost production and reduce price pressures.

Yet Miceli’s appointment is regarded as a way for center-left President Kirchner to gain greater control over the economy. She is viewed as politically weaker than her predecessor, Roberto Lavagna, who was axed in November over policy differences. Miceli is expected to keep her policies in line with Kirchner’s, who has typically blamed retailers, food companies and utilities of introducing unjustified price hikes to take advantage of Argentina’s poor.

With inflation rising and no signs that the government will curb spending, the situation does not bode well for a new IMF agreement after the previous pact was suspended in 2004. The departure of Lavagna, who had sought greater fiscal restraint, will likely strain relations further.

Meanwhile, Miceli disagrees with critics who say the government is imposing price controls as a short-term fix to a longer-term problem. “We don’t call it control because we don’t believe in control, in fixing maximum prices,” she told the press. “This is monitoring so that the whole population can be calm.”